Monday, August 23, 2010

Manipulating Photos = Innocent fun?

The joke is the viewer's acceptance that such a sign "could" be hanging somewhere.

Or that it's just too silly to be real.

But wait - what if it appeared in a newspaper? Or on television...presented as an actual - though unusual - posted sign.

Not so funny if people believe the fake is real.

I used software to quickly change text on this sign but rather simple steps on the computer make it possible to put one person's face on another body. That could be funny. Or misleading. Or even political.

An historic photo of President Lincoln in formal clothes is fake according to a recent article on photo manipulation. It IS his head but it's been superimposed on the body of a nattily-dressed John C. Calhoun.

Another example shows General U.S. Grant in a composite scene that includes his head pasted on another person astride a horse in front of a Civil War camp lifted from a third photo.

Yikes.Here's another example of a picture that is not really real.

Oh, "ALABASTER." the albino alligator, is real at the South Carolina Aquarium but not this picture because the glass acted as a mirror. The lighted room reflected back and I was not able to get a good shot at this particular angle.

So, I removed reflections. I "cloned" actual parts of the scene to cover shiny areas I wanted to eliminate. No harm, no foul. I had no sinister motive here.

Hey, the camera doesn't lie.

(Click on the gator for more details. Probably see my edits better. And read the article. Fascinating! Thanks.)